Friday, 14 March 2014

My mum said, "That would make a really pretty coaster!" I might tat just Rounds 1 and 2 again and make a set of coasters…

But, on to Round 3. What colours to use? I thought I would go back to Butterfly Breeze and introduce Leafy Greens. But, when I tatted one or two motifs, I didn't like it (see the top right corner in the picture below). It looked cool next to the yellow and blue of Round 2, like it was receding. But I figure, the flower round should pop forward! So I started again with Pineapple Parfait (my foundation colour, I realise), and added Fruit Fizz. Ah, much brighter and stronger (see at top left)! So I cut off my first attempt and went with Fruit Fizz. But, now I wonder if I've added too many colours. I hope the yellow will tie things together. And I'm still thinking of going back to Leafy Greens/Butterfly Breeze for the next round, or the next one…

I recently tatted this charming little cross bookmark by Robin Perfetti. She's been designing pretty motifs ever since she discovered an iPad app called Kaleidoscope Drawing Pad (see this discussion thread in InTatters). She now has a blog, so you can download her patterns for yourself.
(Thread: Lizbeth Pastel Petals, Size 40)

Tuesday, 11 March 2014

Here is the doily I am giving the most energy to right now. It's the Spring 2014 Napkin, by Renulek from Poland. She is sharing the pattern round by round on her blog, and several of us on InTatters are following along. We've been having fun looking at all the colours that everyone is using. Finally, I couldn't resist, and I jumped in, too. I am breaking the rules – using three variegated threads to date, and planning to add one or two more, oh my! :-D As you can see, I have spring flowers in mind, and I reckon that the foundation colour is yellow. So far, anyway. :-)

I really should have shown you this doily first. It's the first doily I started, back in March or April 2012. At that time, I didn't want to make anything bigger than a bookmark, but my tatting teacher enticed me by saying that it's so interesting to climb from round to round in a doily.

And indeed it has been interesting! Plotting the route to climb, learning the techniques (split ring and split chain). Also, learning to persevere – through thread additions and major untatting, and some periods of boredom! :-) So, the doily was only finished a few weeks ago. So then I blocked it, and now I am sewing it down onto a black cushion cover - another learning process for me. Here's a picture of the blocked doily lying on the cushion cover. Right now, the sewing is in progress, and it has a lot of tape on it, so I won't show you that!

I have recently been spending a lot of time at the hospital. Bad for designing and diagramming, but good for actually tatting. :-) I am now tatting two doilies that are running as tat-alongs on InTatters.

The Victorian Trellis Doily is an antique pattern from The Priscilla Tatting Book No. 2 (1915 - available for free as a PDF from the Antique Pattern Library, and also from Dover Books as Tatting Patterns, edited by Julia E. Sanders). Last year, or perhaps year before, a lot of members in InTatters members were tatting it and encouraging each other. Frivole blogged about hers in detail, with instructions and videos. This inspired and enabled a lot of us to follow in her footsteps. (Do a search for "Victorian Trellis" on Frivole's blog.)

I finally decided that I couldn't resist its beauty, and I started on it late last year (thread I'm using: DMC Cebelia Size 30, Ivory). Round 1 took me a long time, but the succeeding rounds have gone much faster. I'm now in Round 5. I'll probably slow down now, because I'm now onto another doily! More about that in another post.

I finished my January 2014 TIAS (Tat It And See) a while back, but it was some time before I got round to hiding the ends, and it took a longer while to get round to blogging about it. Anyway, here it is! (Thread I used: Lizbeth Size 20, Jelly Bean (sails) and Herbal Garden (hull and mast).)

So it's a sailboat!

If you'd like to join in, it's not too late! Have a look at the Tat It And See blog here. The sailboats are still arriving in Jane Eborall's harbour, so you can still get in at the tail end of the flotilla!